Stupid you sound, old references you are making, funny your joke is not.

Ok that would just add to it. But maybe what your sister needs is a safe outlet for a little bit of the humor. She's probably not going to completely stop, at least not anytime soon. But as with all things, moderation is key. Star Wars jokes all day everyday is old. And, well, pathetic. But once in a while a well timed witty joke is hilarious. Sure its stupid to do the Jedi wave every time you go through motion senor doors, but once in a blue moon? Very amusing. Yoda speak is annoying as all heck as is "these are not the droids you are looking for" references, but when you are in the cell phone store looking for a new case, one crack about "these are not the 'Droid soft cases you are looking for" is witty and fun.

So maybe the best thing to do is explain to your sister its not that everyone is a wet blanket - Star Wars jokes can be very very topical and funny - its that she is over playing the joke and isn't being witty enough. Gently break it to her that in humor, a little bit can go a long way and that timing is everything, as well as the ability to 'read' one's audience.

I think if you acknowledge that some jokes can be funny and will be laughed at just not all of them all the time, she might receive the info more graciously. Because right now telling her its never funny, isn't accurate and she knows that, so she's not hearing the real message, which is that its too much too often from her, and at the wrong times and places.

Things like this bother me mostly because of the intense second-hand embarrassment they cause.

I've take a leaf from a friend's book. Whenever something like that happens, rather than letting it slide 100% or confronting the person, she just goes, "Anyway..." and continues on as if it hadn't happened. It seems to be a subtle way of distancing yourself from the "joke" and letting them know you didn't find it amusing.

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Quote from: Kinseyanne

In the bag was two cans of kitten formula

So now ... just add water and you get kittens? What will they think of next??

Sorry, but I'm picturing the things you describe and I think they're hilarious... not in the way Sister thinks they are, but in a sort of cringe-worthy sitcom scene way. Where I am definitely laughing at the character and not with them.

Sometimes my dad makes embarrassing comments in public. Like trying to speak in a certain language at an ethnic restaurant. When he has nothing to do with that ethnicity, knows nothing more than the one word he said, and has no reason to think the person he's talking to knows it, either. Even better when it's the wrong language for the restaurant.

I usually either roll my eyes and move on, or sometimes I say, "Dad!!!" in that sort of put-upon daughter tone. I do these things in an obvious way, especially the latter, if the comment is goofy enough that I'm afraid people will worry that he's some weird old guy out wandering the town by himself. Sorry, folks, I'm trying to supervise him, but it's tough, is the message I'm trying to send.

If your sister is making confusing comments to, say, a waitress, I think it's okay and even important for you to step in, because the waitress is kind of a "captive audience" whose job is basically to keep you happy, and it's rude to toy with that, I think. Maybe something like, "Oh, don't mind her. What's your soup of the day?" If your sister complains, maybe you could say that it's rude to take up the waitress's time/strangers' time with jokes (which is also true).

As for the police thing, IMO anyone who tries to joke with/about the police while they're actively arresting someone is on their own and I would probably just walk away from them--I respect the police and I'm not going to distract or antagonize them when they're doing their job. (I'm assuming Sister spoke loud enough that the police officers could hear her, or at least knew she was talking about them.)

Honestly, I would just go with a totally blank deadpan look every time, with any comments made in a completely emotionless voice. "Don't worry about her, she thinks she's making a joke" to the waitress; or "I'm not a wet blanket. You're not funny." as necessary. Then just disengage. Act as though the stupid comment never happened.

Or you could try and out-geek her by saying "You keep using that word, funny. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Not wanting to sound like Yoda; but, obsessed people will be obsessed by what obsesses them, and will tend to go on and on about it. I can be bad that way myself (though not about Star Wars). If the person has a relatively thin skin / a modicum of awareness of others, they can be (with some gentleness) hinted to / shamed one way or another, into "throttling it back". If not -- well, it can be difficult, within the boundaries of politeness; and overstepping those may make things nasty, not just short-term. Can be a hard one.

A well timed joke is rather funny. One of my favorite lines from "Sorcerer's Apprentice" with Nick Cage,Jay Baruchel and Alfred Molina is when Molina and his apprentice are in the college looking for where they could find Jay's character.

Molina waves his staff and tells the kid at the information desk "You do not need to see our identification." His apprentice waves his hand saying "These are not the droids you are looking for." Granted that's a movie but it always makes me giggle at the reference.

And in college there were times when roleplaying with friends that people would work in a SW quote and we'd laugh our heinies off.

Out of context, like it was used on the waitress would confuse me too, and if it was used constantly and not even funny it would annoy me. I'm constantly trying to get my 10 year old to realize that just because we laugh at his joke the first time doesn't mean we'll do it the next 20 times. Sounds like your sis could use this lesson too.

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Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. Be cheerful, strive to be happy. -Desiderata

Ooooh boy. My mother used to do that, although with slang rather than movie jokes. We got into the habit of watching "Flying Doctors" and picked up a lot of Australian slang that way which crept its way into our everyday language (we spoke both English and Danish at home after returning from New Zealand). The problem was Mum would copy it to "be cool with her children" (that's our theory anyway), but she didn't really understand it and therefore simply did not use it right. It drove us crazy.

It all came to a head one morning my oldest sister and I were walking to the bus to go to school. Mum called out after us, "Can we have a bit of hush?" This means "Quiet down, please", but as my sister and I weren't talking I have no clue what she thought it meant. Sis and I just shared a Look(TM) and walked on, ignoring her. She never did it again.

15 years later, part of me feels bad for embarrassing her like that. The other part of me knows that complete silence was a lot more polite than what I probably would have said.

I love a good SW joke, in fact any "silly" movie reference jokes really - but what your sister is doing just sounds really, really pathetic and not remotely amusing. Seriously lame! I would be embarassed to be with her when she makes a fool of herself in front of shop staff etc. If we were by ourselves I'd just ignore a stupid comment, but the public ones are a little harder.

But I also can't think of much else you can say, short of staging a full-on intervention. If she's ignored all of the comments so far it may just be a lesson that takes time to sink in. Hopefully over time she'll realise that nobody is finding it funny and the novelty will wear off. (Or you could show her this thread? Embarassing, but a bit of majority opinion?)

Oh my.I thought of this thread recently when I noticed a relative (in her 50s) does the Psy Gangnum Style moves when shes around younger nieces and nephews AND their friends. I see lots of , blank looks, and a few pursed lips trying not to laugh AT her.